The invention relates to the automatic design of items such as computer programs or indeed mechanical or electro-mechanical consumer goods.
Heretofore, attempts have been made at automatic design of items. For example, European Patent Specification No. EP 0343682A2 (Mitsubishi) describes an automatic programming system in which efficiency of testing is improved by coupling of design and test stages. While the process shown in this specification is apparently quite efficient at generating computer programs, it does not make use of existing cases, i.e. computer programs which have already been developed and which may be quite similar to the target computer program. Thus, the process is not inherently as efficient as it could possibly be if use were made of existing cases. It is worth noting that this process has a narrow range of uses because it is restricted to development of computer programs, and indeed a particular type of computer program. This is because a very large amount of knowledge must be stored where development/design is from "first principle". British Patent Specification No. GB 2187004B (STC) describes an automatic inspection system in which existing signal processing modules are selected to construct a target system for a particular use. However, in many circumstances it is not possible to make use of a library of existing modules, especially one of which is ideally suitable for a particular target product. In these cases, adaptation of existing modules is required, and where this is the case, the tendency has been for development to be carried out manually, using human intuition.